The Los Angeles Opera will be presenting to concert-version performance of composer-in-residence Matthew Aucoin's opera Crossing at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills. There will be performances on May 25 and 26, featuring barihunks Rod Gilfry as Walt Whitman and Devon Tines as the escaped slave Freddie Stowers.
The opera had its world premiere in May 25 at the Shubert Theatre in Boston with Gilfry and Tines in the cast. It has subsequently been performed at the National Opera Center in New York City and at the Brooklyn Academy of Music
The opera was inspired by the diary that poet Walt Whitman kept as a nurse during the Civil War. Crossing explores how the individual
experiences of soldiers are remembered and told. As Whitman listens to
wounded veterans share their memories and messages, he forges a bond
with a soldier who forces him to examine his own role as writer and
poet.
John Adams is one of the best known and most often performed of
America's composers. Adams was born in Worcester, Massachusetts on
February 15, 1947. During his youth, growing up in Vermont and New
Hampshire, he was strongly influenced by the intellectual and cultural
institutions of New England. He received both his BA and MA degrees from
Harvard University, where he was active as a conductor, clarinetist,
and composer. His principal teachers included Leon Kirchner, David Del
Tredici and Roger Sessions.
In 1971, Adams began an active career in the San Francisco area,
teaching at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (1972-83) and
serving as new music adviser and composer-in-residence for the San
Francisco Symphony (1978-85).
Adams coined the term “post-minimalism” starting with his piece for string septet Shaker Loops (1978). This style is characterized by greater dynamic contrasts and a more fluid and layered sound. The completion and premiere of Harmonium in 1981 was well-received by critics and the public, establishing Adams as a major American composer. He was the winner of the 2003
Pulitzer prize.
Barihunk Ryan McKinny (left) and tenor Paul Appleby in Girls of the Golden West
His latest opera, "Girls of the Golden West," premiered at the San Francisco Opera on November 21, 2017 to decidedly mixed reviews. The cast included the barihunk trio of Ryan McKinny, Elliot Madore and Davone Tines and, like many of Adams' pieces, dealt with a slice of actual history.
A number of his pieces have leading roles for baritones, including J. Robert Oppenheimer in Dr. Atomic, Nixon in Nixon in China and the critical roles of the captain, terrorist (Rambo) and Klinghoffer in The Death of Klinghoffer. His oratorio The Gospel According to the Other Mary was written for tenor, soprano, mezzo-soprano and three countertenors!
Thomas Hampson sings a selection from The Wound-Dresser:
He also wrote the Walt Whitman-inspired piece The Wound-Dresser, which
is scored for baritone voice, 2 flutes (or 2 piccolos), 2 oboes,
clarinet, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, trumpet (or piccolo tpt),
timpani, synthesizer, and strings.
Upcoming performance of operas by John Adams include Nixon in China at the Mainfranken Theater Würzburg in May/June 2018 and Dr. Atomic at the Santa Fe Opera in July/August 2018 with Ryan McKinny and Daniel Okulitch.
Matthew Aucoin's opera Crossing is making its New York premiere at the Brooklyn Academy of Music from October 3-8. The ageless barihunk Rod Gilfry returns in the role of Walt Whitmen, whose Civil War diary that he kept while working as a nurse inspired the opera.
Crossingexplores how the individual experiences of soldiers are remembered and told. As Whitman listens to wounded veterans share their memories and messages, he forges a bond with a soldier who forces him to examine his own role as writer and poet. The opera, directed by Diane Paulus, begins with Walt Whitman's prologue, delivered while facing the audience in front a bunch of rickety hospital beds. Whitman sings, “What is it, then, between us?,” a key line from his poem “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry.” While caring for the injured soldiers, Whitman is drawn to a haunted-looking soldier names John Wormley, who is sung by tenor Alexander Lewis. The opera deals with a number of "crossings," including between poet and reader, performer and audience, and the contradictory elements of Walt Whitman himself.
The cast also includes a spate of barihunks, including Davone Tines as a South Carolina slave, Hadleigh Adams, Michael Kelly as a soldier, Ben Lowe, Matthew Patrick Morris and Jorell Williams. Tickets are available online.
The opera heads to California for its West Coast premiere in May 2018 for a concert performance at the Los Angeles Opera, which also stars Rod Gilfry. The opera originally premiered in May 2015 at the Shubert Theater in Boston.
Two barihunks will be sharing the role of Walt Whitman in Matthew Aucoin's new opera Crossing at The American Repertory Theater at Harvard University.
The opera was inspired by the diary that poet Walt Whitman kept as a nurse during the Civil War. Crossing explores how the individual
experiences of soldiers are remembered and told. As Whitman listens to
wounded veterans share their memories and messages, he forges a bond
with a soldier who forces him to examine his own role as writer and
poet.
Rod Gilfry will sing the role of Whitman on May 29, 31, June 2, 4 and 6, with Edward Parks taking on the role on June 5. Also in the cast are barihunks Davone Tines, Michael Kelly and Matthew Patrick Morris, who will be joined by Alexander Lewis as John Wormley, Davone Tines as Freddie Stower, and Jennifer Zetlan as the Messenger.
Michael Kelly, Davone Tines and Matthew Patrick Morris (L-R)
Barihunk Edward Parks is a graduate of the Metropolitan Opera's
Lindemann Young Artists Development Program, and made his Metropolitan
Opera debut in the 2009-2010 season as Fiorello in Il barbiere di
Siviglia. He since appeared at the Met as Schaunard in La bohème,
Larkens in La fancuilla
del West and returned this season for La Bohème, Don Carlo, and Die
Zauberflöte. Future seasons will see his debut with Virginia Opera and a return to
the Metropolitan Opera.
Bass-barihunk Davone Tines is building an international career
commanding a broad spectrum of opera and concert performances. Recent performances include programs of Bach and Rameau at Alice Tully
Hall and the U.S. premiere of Meanachem Zur's Cartoons at Lincoln Center. Upcoming engagements include concerts with the
Boston Pops, Tanglewood Music Festival, two
one-man shows entitled American Gothic and The Black Clown, and the premier of
two chamber operas by Kaija Saariajo
at the Dutch National Opera and Ojai Music Festival. He is a 2009
graduate of Harvard College and received a Masters degree in voice from
The Juilliard School in 2013.
Additional information and tickets are available online.
We celebrate baritone birthdays daily on Barihunks, but today we thought that it was important to celebrate the birthday of poet Walt Whitman.
Whitman has not inspired scores of composers to set his poetry to music, but singers are often so personally moved by the text that they seek out songs set to his words. Don't miss the selection from Randal Turner singing Clint Borzoni's "I Dream'd in a Dream" with the singers personal tale of inspiration and hope.
According to Michael Hovland's Musical Settings of American Poets, the poetry of Walt Whitman has been set to music 539 times, more than that of any other American poet with the exceptions of Emily Dickinson and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Composers as diverse as Ned Rorem, Frederick Delius, Clint Borzoni, Ricky Ian Gordon, Kurt Weill, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Roy Harris, Lee Hoiby
Ian Greenlaw sings 'Oh Captain! My Captain!' from Kurt Weill's Walt Whitman songs. Performed at a cabaret sponsored by operamission last year in New York:
Walt Whitman is known for his famous, and controversial, collection of poems, Leaves of Grass.
Whitman was born on May 31, 1819 in West Hills, New York. His mother, Louisa Van Velsor, was descended from a long line of New York Dutch farmers; his father, Walter Whitman, was a Long Island farmer and carpenter. His mother was Louisa Van Velsor.
In 1823, the family moved to Brooklyn in search of work. The second of nine children in an undistinguished family, Whitman received little in the way of formal education. He still managed to read the works of Homer, Dante, and Shakespeare.
A sunstroke in 1885 and another paralytic stroke made Walt Whitman increasingly dependent on others. He died of complications from a stroke on March 26, 1892.
At the age of 17, Whitman began teaching at various Long Island schools and continued to teach until he went to New York City to be a printer for the New World and a reporter for the Democratic Review in 1841. For much of the next years, he made his livelihood through journalism. Besides reporting and freelance writing, he also edited several Brooklyn newspapers, including the "Daily Eagle," the "Freeman," and the "Times."
In 1848, Whitman met and was hired by a representative of the New Orleans Crescent. Although the job lasted only a few months, the journey by train, stagecoach, and steamboat helped to broaden his view of America.
Randal Turner sings Clint Borzoni's "I Dreamed in a Dream" and talks about how this song made him think about the gay teens being bullied, including his own personal story.
Whitman received little money with the first edition of Leaves of Grass,
but he did receive some attention, including a letter from Ralph Waldo
Emerson. The second edition in 1860 with the "Calamus" poems and the
third edition of Leaves created controversy for readers, but the Civil War turned all eyes on the battlefields.
Whitman
traveled to Virginia to search for his brother, George, and found him
wounded. He stayed to help tend wounded soldiers in Washington DC; and
wrote some of his famous war poetry, printed partially as "Drum Taps"
and "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd." He witnessed Lincoln's
second inauguration and mourned the assassination of Lincoln in April.
In
the years after the war, Whitman's reputation increased both in England
and in the US. In January of 1873, he suffered a paralytic stroke.
Several months later, in May, his mother died. Unable to work, he
returned to live with his brother in Camden, New Jersey.
He was
able to take trips to New York, Boston, and even to Colorado to see the
Rocky Mountains, but his declining health mostly provided him with the
opportunity to restructure and revise his most famous work, Leaves of Grass, the culmination of so many previously published collections.
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Bryn Terfel sings English composer Frederick Delius' "Sea Drift", based the poem "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking" from Book XIX of the poetry collection "Leaves of Grass" by Walt Whitman. The work was premiered in 1906 and the poetry is suffused with images of love, the sea and death as Whitman observes two mating birds, the male's bewilderment, following the death of the female, becoming analogous to the human experience of loss and grief.
Zachary Gordin as he appears in the 2012 Barihunks calendar
On June 1 at 7 PM PST, the Sacramento Gay & Lesbian Center is presenting "Courage to
Stand," which showcases the stories of LGBT service
members who served before, during, and after the "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" era. The event is the official kickoff of the 2012 Sacramento
Gay Pride Weekend and it will include barihunk Zachary Gordin premiering New York composer Clint Borzoni's "A Nation
Announcing Itself" taken from Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass."
We asked Borzoni about his selection of "A Nation
Announcing Itself."
I scoured my go-to source material, Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass" for
a poem that might set well for the commission. I came upon the first
poem in the "Chants Democratic" section which I thought perfectly
captured the emotions of the LGBT troops. Lines like, "What we are, we
are...", "I swear I dare not shirk any part of myself, not any part of
America, good or bad", and "O I see now flashing, that this America is
only you and me, its power, weapons, testimony, are you and me...". The
song isn't only about an individual group standing up for their rights,
but about a section of that group fighting for the rights of every
person, even those that condemn them. The song is titled, "A Nation
Announcing Itself".
We asked Zachary Gordin about the piece and here's what he had to say:
Clint treats the subject matter directly, and takes great care in setting the text. There are bugle-like intervals in the vocal line at the beginning of the song, setting a military theme which develops into a melody that flows from powerful exclamation, to floating pianissimi, and back. The accompaniment is virtuosic and exciting, reinforcing the emotional "buzz" of the text, and there's a big finish! I am amazed by how well Clint wrote for my specific voice, exploiting a full tonal palette in a way that seems like we collaborated endlessly on each phrase. All this, after one conversation about basic technical aspects of the vocal line. I'm thrilled to premiere this song with pianist Jim Jordan, who is an incredibly gifted artist and an absolute joy to make music with!
Tickets to this event are $75 per person and includes an open bar, hors d'oeuvres and a selection fo wine from Bogle Vineyards. The event is at the Citizen Hotel in Sacramento. Tickets are available HERE.
Regular readers of this site will recall that Borzoni also set another Whitman poem, "I Dream'd in a Dream" for barihunk Randal Turner's West Coast recital debut in 2010. That recording is available at CDBaby. or at Amazon (click on the box in the sidebar to order).
American barihunk Randal Turner performed at the 9/11 tribute at the U.S. embassy in Switzerland. Turner sang Clint Borzoni's "I Dream'd in a Dream" with text from Walt Whitman's "The Leaves of Grass" and Greg Gilpin's inspiring "Instrument of Peace" with text from the St. Francis of Assisi Prayer. Read the article on SwissInfo.com.
You can download Turner singing "I Dream'd in a Dream" at CD Baby, which is included on his CD of living American composers. Listen to it here:
During Randal Turner's West Coast recital debut last December, he took a moment to talk about what it was like to be gay and bullied in school. He also talked about how he had been introduced to a gifted young composer named Clint Borzoni whose beautiful song "I Dream'd in a Dream" made Turner think of his experiences and the stories of young gay men taking their lives for being bullied. The song is based on a poem by Walt Whitman, as is the other Borzoni song on the program, "That Shadow, My Likeness."
The video is now on YouTube and although it's not part of the official "It Gets Better" campaign, it is a powerful and heartfelt story that should be shared with the world.
You can learn more about Clint Borzoni on his website. If you'd like to watch Turner's entire recital of "Living American Composers," it is now available on Amazon. We've made the CD and individual tracks available on this website for your convenience.
[Doug Carpenter, Poetic License and Daniel Okulitch]
Four-time Emmy Award winning composer Glen Roven is a lucky man. The composer of "The Runaway Bunny" and a magnificent violin concerto just recorded a CD of poetry featuring two popular barihunks, Daniel Okulitch and Douglas Carpenter. Roven is spearheading a project called "Poetic License" just in time for National Poetry Month. The recording on GPR Records features 103 celebrities reading their favorite poems.
Douglas Carpenter chose Walt Whitman's "To What You Said" and Daniel Okulitch chose Hoagland's "Self Improvement." Some of the others on the disc include Jason Alexander, Christine Baranski, Zoe Caldwell, Tyne Daly, Lauren Flanigan, Patti LuPone, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Kathleen Turner and Michael York. The CD will be available on iTunes and at Amazon on April 2.
[Mark Stone and Glen Roven]
Those wishing to see Glen Roven live and working with a barihunk are in luck. Barihunk Mark Stone will be performing an evening of Glen Roven songs at Carnegie Hall on Wednesday, May 19.
